Migrating Birds Delay Completion of New Airport Terminal in Bulgaria's Plovdiv

June 23, 2009: The new terminal of Plovdiv Airport will be open on July 1. Photo by Plovdiv Airport 

The roof of the new terminal of the airport in Bulgaria's city of Plovdiv will be completed in the fall after all the swallows nesting on existing construction migrate south.

The news has been announced by the CEO of the Plovdiv Airport, Andrey Andreev, after the Board of Directors decided Tuesday to wait for the migrating birds to head south.

A total of 132 swallow nests exist currently on the roof of the new terminal under construction. A Bulgarian superstition has it that the destruction of a swallow nest would cause bad things to happen to those who do it.

Bulgaria's Minister of Transport, Petar Mutafchiev, who is a native of Plovdiv, hopes the new airport terminal would serve to boost the development of the various types of tourism in the Plovdiv and Smolyan Districts, BGNES reported.

Even though its roof will still be incomplete because of the swallow nests, the new terminal of the Plovdiv Airport will be opened on July 1, 2009. According to Minister Mutafchiev, a railway line to the airport will also be constructed in the coming years, thus launching a train from the airport to the downtown.

The new airport terminal in Plovdiv is part of the 20-year program for the development of Plovdiv Airport.